Improvement in spreading-rollers for stretching cloth



I. BILLARD.

CLOTH SPREADBR.

No. 14,559. Patented Apr. 15, 1855'.

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

JONATHAN I. I IILLARD, 0F FALL RIVER, MASSACHUSETTS.

IMPROVEMENT IN SvPRADlNG-ROLLERS FOR STHETCHING vCLOTH.

.Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 14,659, dated April 15, 1856.

To all whom, it Maginon/cern.-

- Beit known that I, JONATHAN I. l-IILLARD,

. of Fall River, in the countyof 'Bristol and State of Massachusetts, have invented a new and useful Improvement in Spreaders for NVidening and Stretching Cloth; and I do "hereby declare that the. following is a full,` clear, and exact description of the saine, reference being hadto the accompanyingdrawings, forming part of this specication, in Which Y Figure l is an outside view vof a spreader constructed according to my invention. Fig. 2 is a longitudinal section, and Fig. 3 a transverse section of the same.

Similar letters of reference indicate' correspending parts in the several figures. l

The spreader constructed according to this invention is composed of a series of parallel serrated bars having a rotary motion around a common shaft or axis and at the same time av longitudinal motion parallel with the said shaft or axis; but the bars are connected with the shaft and have their longitudinal Inovernentproduced by a different method to those of the common spreader, whereby the friction is much reduced, and consequently 'the spreader is acted upon more easily by the friction of the cloth upon the' bars. and.A

the cloth may be widened or stretched to a greater degree than bythe old spreader. It is in this improved method of connecting and giving motionl to the 'bars that Amy invention consists. l

'lo enable those skilled in the art to make and vuse my invention, I will proceed to describe its construction'and operation.

A is the shaft ot" the spreader, and B B and l' B the serrated bars.

C C and C C are cylindrical nanged collare-which are bored o bliquelyV and keyed to the shaft, the Obliquity of CC being in an .opposite direction relatively to the shaft to that of C' C; On each of these collars a small wheel E, bored truly, is fitted to turn freely, and in each wheel is a series vof loose radial spokes D D, which are confined in the 'direction of their length, but Iitted with journals b and c to turn freely. These spokes are so arranged that if continued their axes would intersect the axis of the collars at the `point where the latter intersect the axis of the shaft, as indicated by red lines in Fig. 2, and they have heads outside the wheel, fitted easily to longitudinal grooves in the bars, as

shown in Fig. 3, andthe bars are attached to them by transverse pivots a a, the bars B B of 'one-half the spreader being attached to the spokes of the two Wheels on OO and the bars B' B of the other half of the spreader` tothe spokes of the two wheels on C G.

-This mode of connectingthe bars with the shaft 4allows the greatest requisite degree of freedom to the longitudinal movement of the bars, the pivots a a and thejournals b cof the spokes being the only parts uponfwhieh any friction is produced by the said longitudinal movement, and this `friction, owing to the almost imperceptible movement, is so slight that no oil is required on those parts,

thev only oil required being between the interior of the hubs of the wheels and the collars C C and C C', upon which they revolve. This dispensing with oil isof great advantage,.as it obviates all danger of greasing the cloth. The wheels E 'E- are kept in their proper place by the anges c c of the collars.' I am aware 'that the revolving spreader formed of serrated bars arranged parallel to the axis or encircling the same and formed each line of bars in two lengths or parts hav.-

ing' longitudinal play in opposite directions parallel to the axis is in itself no'new device, but is awell-known form of spreader used in machines for stretching and widening cloth. Such, therefore, I do not claim, nor yet operating the stretching-bars, as specified, by wheels set obliquely on the shaft or axis ofthe spreader, as this has before been done; but 1 Ido claim as .a'new and useful improvement on the revolving reciprocating spreader herein referred to The jointed and pivoted arrangement here- -in shownv and described of. the serrated stretching-bars B B B B', with the obliquelyset wheels E, on or around the axisv of the spreader by means of the loose radial spokes D D, and transverse pivots a, a for connectving the stretching-bars with the obliquely-s'etg- 

